Journal of Information Systems Education (JISE)

News and Highlights

The latest news and important highlights regarding JISE

Volume 29 Issue 3, Summer 2018, is now published (see Current Issue section below). This issue contains five new articles: a teaching case about dealing with the unintended consequences of social media posts, a teaching case about the Wells Fargo account opening scandal, a manuscript about teamwork and team performance through competition, and two manuscripts addressing IS graduate programs - one about program development and one about industry alignment. Enjoy!

The contents of JISE Volumes 12-15 are now uploaded and available via the Archives page and the Search page.

Forthcoming Papers

(hover over paper title to see the abstract)

Teaching Tip: Gaining Real-World Experience in Information Security: A Roadmap for a Service Learning Course
AbstractStudents need real-world experience. Industry needs graduating students entering the workforce to be skilled in relevant subject matter, critical thinking, and communication skills. Community-based nonprofit organizations, as well as small businesses, need help in building organizational capacity. Instructors also benefit from periodic observation of organizational work in the instructor’s area of teaching. A service-learning course that is focused on capacity building is a means to reach all of these goals. This article presents a roadmap for teaching a service-learning course in information security risk assessment. Students work in teams on a term-long project conducting an on-site risk assessment, making security recommendations, and producing and presenting a final security risk report to an organization’s management. Teaching tips are offered on course planning, launch, materials, and execution.
Janine L. Spears

Teaching Case: An Interdisciplinary Task-Based Activity for Teaching Internal Controls
AbstractThis case addresses the critical topic in education of developing students’ skills and capabilities associated with enterprise-level business intelligence systems and associated internal control concerns. The experiences of using a business intelligence task-based activity in an interdisciplinary curriculum model are presented and discussed. Pedagogically, the task-based activity enhances perceived learning for both accounting and IS disciplines in domain (internal controls and IS development), communication (comprehension and creation), and critical thinking skills. Additionally, students appreciate the realism and active learning associated with the task-based activity delivered in an interdisciplinary curriculum model. The design of the task-based activity as a teaching resource allows other instructors, based on their requirements, to develop a lesson plan around using the activity as written, or focusing on the any of the many aspects of controls or technology presented.
Dawna M. Drum, Thomas E. Marshall, Sherwood L. Lambert, and Steven Morris

IT Career Counseling: Are Occupational Congruence and the Job Characteristics Model Effective at Predicting IT Job Satisfaction?
AbstractThe IT industry struggles to attract qualified talent despite an exceptional outlook in terms of both job availability and compensation. Similarly, post-secondary academic institutions report difficulties recruiting students for IT majors. One potential reason for this is that current career counseling practices do not adequately convey relevant job characteristic data to prospective job applicants and academic majors. Accordingly, we report the results of a survey of 72 IT professionals regarding their job interests and perceptions of important characteristics of their current job. We use the data to test the efficacy of Holland’s classic occupation congruence model, the basis of current career counseling practices. In addition, we assess an alternate congruence model based on professionals’ job perceptions, and the Job Characteristics Model of Work Motivation (JCM) to determine which is more effective at predicting desired job outcomes. Results show that a sub-set of JCM constructs including task variety, task identity, and task autonomy is superior to both congruence models in predicting positive job outcomes. This suggests that IT career counseling outcomes might be improved by emphasizing the JCM characteristics.
Darrell Carpenter, Diana K. Young, Alexander McLeod, and Michele Maasberg

Applying an Extended Task-Technology Fit for Establishing Determinants of Mobile Learning: An Instant Messaging Initiative
AbstractThe high proliferation of mobile instant messaging (MIM) among university students creates opportunities for a new wave of mobile learning. However, correlational methods for assessing factors that influence student performance impacts on MIM platforms for learning are blurry. The task-technology fit theory has been widely used in the past in predicting performance impacts of users after using new technology. Despite the momentum gained by this framework in the information systems community, it lacks focus on user characteristics. The purpose of this study is to develop an extended model for task-technology fit through an integration of individual characteristics antecedent. Data was collected from 223 participants using a survey questionnaire. The analysis was performed using the partial least squares approach to structural equation modelling. The findings of the study confirmed the original task-technology fit relative hypotheses considered in this study. Study findings associated with individual characteristics antecedent indicate that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the academic use of the MIM positively influence task-technology fit, while social influence was found to have no significant bearing on task-technology fit.
Aaron Bere

Entry Level Technology Positions: No Degree Required
AbstractEmployers demand for skilled technology workers has never been higher. Opportunities for individuals interested in working in technology to acquire the requisite skills have expanded to meet the increased demand. The expansion of training offerings calls into question the quality of new ventures such as coding academies and the necessity of traditional academic pathways. This research addresses concerns by exploring how employers value different forms of skill acquisition within the information technology environment defined as: academic degrees, certifications, and work experience. IT executives and HR managers surveyed give insight into how they relatively value the various sources for their new and experienced employees. Using non-parametric methods and correspondence analysis, an overall picture of employers’ valuations were obtained. Additionally, subsections were analyzed across employer size and industry type. Results from the analysis identified expected general valuations by the employers. However, employer responses to the valuations identified unexpected actions that have potential negative impacts on institutions of higher education.
David Wierschem and Francis A. Méndez Mediavilla

The mission of JISE is to be the premier journal on information systems (IS) education. To support that mission, JISE emphasizes quality and relevance in the papers that it publishes. In addition, JISE recognizes the international influences on IS education and seeks international input in all aspects of the journal, including authorship, reviewing, and Editorial Board membership.

JISE operates as a Diamond Open Access journal. This means that there are no subscription fees, no submission/processing fees, and no publication fees. All papers published in JISE have undergone rigorous peer review. This includes an initial editor screening and double-blind refereeing by three or more expert reviewers. Additional details are available regarding the
submission process and the types of articles.

EDSIGCon

The EDSIG Conference on Information Systems and Computing Education (EDSIGCon) is a peer-reviewed conference for academic professionals and institutions of higher learning focused on Information Systems education including (but not limited to) model curriculum, assessment, distance education challenges, capstone and service learning projects, and information systems research geared toward educators. EDSIGCon 2018 in Norfolk, VA, was a great success! EDSIGCon 2019 will be held in Cleveland, OH, from November 6 - 9, 2019. Check out edsigcon.org for full details regarding the call for participation, the venue, key dates, and more.